Top Chinese official warns of animal disease threats

China faces high risks of animal disease outbreaks this year as new strains of foot-and-mouth disease emerge and cases of bird flu increase, said Jia Youling, a leading veterinarian at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Jia said disease outbreaks have been intermittent to date and it does not indicate any epidemic. However, new variants of disease such as type A foot-and-mouth disease poses a challenge as no vaccines are commercially available. Last month, Shanghai veterinarians culled 440 cows after an outbreak of the type A foot-and-mouth disease.

Bird flu outbreaks have also increased this year, with authorities in Hetian district of Xinjiang province culling over 13,000 domestic fowl in February after an outbreak of the H5N1 strain.

Jia said migrating wild birds are the main carriers of bird flu viruses and outbreaks in neighbouring countries can easily be spread to China.

He added that exposure to the virus is boosted as the wide distribution of small farms across the country increases the contacts between domestic fowl and wild birds. Meanwhile, China's vast domestic waterfowl are under threat as farmers did not administer the required two vaccinations to save cost.

Jia also stated controls on blue-ear disease, which killed tens of millions of pigs in 2007, have''significantly improved'' after successful vaccination.